Syrian Opposition Activists Ask Kosovo for Advice

PRISTINA, Kosovo – A Syrian dissident said Thursday his country’s opposition is turning to Kosovo’s former rebels-turned-politicians for advice on how to topple Bashar Assad’s regime in Damascus.

Ammar Abdulhamid, an exiled anti-Assad activist, said that seeing a new country “emerging out of the nightmare and emerging as a state” could be inspiring for Syrian dissidents.

Assad’s government has cracked down on a 13-month-old popular uprising in Syria, leading to an estimated 9,000-plus deaths.

“We are here to learn,” Abdulhamid said during an interview with The Associated Press in Pristina. “Kosovo has gone through an experience that I think will be very useful to us in terms of how the different armed groups that formed the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) organized themselves.”

Abdulhamid is one of three Syrian opposition activists visiting Kosovo, where they met former Kosovo rebels who fought a separatist war against Serbia in 1998-99. Serbia still rejects Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence.

No details were given about the meetings with former rebels whose identities were not disclosed.

Syria’s opposition has been criticized for failing to put up a more united front.

“We really need to get our act together as opposition coalitions,” Abdulhamid said.

The dissident, who has been living in exile in the United States since 2005, compared the apparent lack of unity among Syria’s opposition to Kosovo’s own political divisions in the late 1990s between pacifist leader Ibrahim Rugova and armed rebels.

“Somehow they’ve managed to make it work so that gives us a hope that we can also rise above the differences and make transition to democracy in Syria something viable,” Abdulhamid said.

The ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army launched an uprising against the regime of President Slobodan Milosevic in 1997. Serbia’s response provoked international condemnation and led to NATO’s 78-day bombing in 1999 that ended the crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians and brought Kosovo under U.N. administration. About 10,000 people died in the Kosovo conflict.

Russia supports Serbia in rejecting Kosovo’s declaration of independence, which many countries, including the U.S. and most EU countries, support.

Syrian-American Network for Aid and Development (SANAD)
The Syrian-American Network for Aid and Development (SANAD) is an independent organization launched in 2011 in Washington, D.C. dedicated to supporting the Syrian refugees, families and children, as they escape the conflict. The word SANAD ( ْسَنَد

Tharwa Foundation
Tharwa was established by Ammar Abdulhamid and Khawla Yusuf in Syria shortly after the events of September 11 to focus on inter-communal dialogue in Syria and beyond.

The Freedom Collection
Ammar’s video interview series on the George W. Bush Institute’s Freedom Collection Website

The United State has for long linked the recognition of West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel to achieving peace between Israelis and Palestinians. President Trump’s recent decision on this matter reverses the policy and does so at a time when the government of PM Netanyahu continues to pursue expansion of illegal settlements in Palestinian territories and […]

Rather than help curtail the slaughter and pave the way for serious peace talks, limited strikes risk re-empowering Assad while undermining the credibility of President Trump.Strike Assad, Sanction Russia, Support Rebels and Hold Peace-Talks in Geneva!Despite the wag-the-dog appearance of President Trump’s about-face on Syria—that is, the possibility that hi […]

Few notes on the latest developments concerning Trump Administration's policy on SyriaSome serious strikes will take place against the Assad regime soon in order to signal that Trump is serious about Syria and that he is different from his predecessor and will respond differently when he is challenged. Trump needs to send a strong message in this regard […]

Our self-appointed Lord and Master holds his first cabinet meeting finally giving us all the chance and the blessing to praise him.Not to be outdone, our other more subtle self-appointed Lord and Master awarded the honor of interviewing him to the great American fabulist Oliver Stone. The results were fabulous.Meanwhile, an old Lord and Master wannabe is pre […]

“I can definitely say the President is not a liar”Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee SandersTaking a leaf from Mr. James Comey’s playbook, “considering the nature of the person” we are dealing with, meaning Trump, we should indeed expect and prepare for the worst.And the worst may unfold over a longer period of time than most American may want […]

Mystery Solved After days of extensive research we can now assert beyond the shed of any doubt that “Covfefe” is actually an Arabanglish word. Arabanglish is an emerging language spoken by the Arabic-speaking diaspora in English speaking countries. As an equivalent to Spanglish, it combines Arabic and English vocabulary and borrows from Arabic and English g […]

A DELIRICUM OF WISDOMIn the Gulf, Putin and his hackers createda certain opportunity for which the Saudis have been eagerly waiting and Trump more than willing to take the credit. Talk about collusion. Collusion aside, pundits keep showing the world how little they understand the region. For the real reason behind the recent crisis has little to do with Iran […]

A DELIRICUM OF WISDOMYes, what Kathy Griffin did was horrible, but it’s the “butt” of her joke that is clearly to blame. After all, the most powerful man in the world is far more capable of setting the tone of our public discourse than any comedienne. And he did not just set the bar too low, he shattered all relevant norms. In the process he undermined not o […]